Lignin-mediated atomic coordination engineering of Ru nanoclusters with self-optimized Mott-Schottky interfaces for industrial hydrogen production

作者：Jianglin Liu, Bowen Liu, Xiaofei Wang, Yanlin Qin, Jason Chun‐Ho Lam, Xuliang Lin, Xueqing Qiu · 发表于：Fundamental Research · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.1016/j.fmre.2025.09.020 · 被引用次数：25 · 研究领域：Electrocatalysts for Energy Conversion、Catalytic Processes in Materials Science、Catalysis for Biomass Conversion

The global transition toward carbon neutrality urgently demands scalable green hydrogen technologies driven by renewable energy. While water electrolysis represents a key pathway, current anion exchange membrane technologies face critical limitations in catalyst stability and efficiency, particularly in terms of ruthenium-based cathodes for the alkaline hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Conventional synthesis methods frequently encounter irreversible nanoparticle aggregation due to weak metal-ligand coordination, significantly compromising catalytic durability. We present a groundbreaking supramolecular assembly strategy utilizing lignin's polyphenolic architecture to construct robust lignin-metal supramolecular framework complexes (MSF@Lignin), achieving unparalleled dispersion of Ru active sites. Subsequent pyrolysis induces synergistic structural coupling between carbonized lignin matrices and Ru nanoclusters, forming electron-redistributed Mott-Schottky interfaces that drastically enhance charge transfer kinetics. The anion exchange membrane-water electrolyzer (AEMWE) device using Ru@OALC as the cathode achieved an industrial-grade current density of 0.5 A cm −2 at an extremely low cell voltage of 1.69 V at 25°C and operated stably for 800 h at a slow voltage decay of 0.1 mV h −1 . We elucidate the structure-activity relationship of Ru@OALC. In situ monitoring of adsorption effects during HER reaction by electrochemical quartz crystal microbalance (EQCM) was proposed for...